Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau proudly represents authors whose books incorporate diversity into their stories for young readers. For your next school read, celebrate inclusivity, education, and community with speakers whose work raises awareness, provides resources, and creates positive change for children of all ages.
Sabaa Tahir
Sabaa Tahir is the first Muslim and Pakistani-American woman to win a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. In her engaging talks, Tahir focuses on the reason behind purposefully choosing to portray a diverse world and cast for her New York Times bestselling An Ember in the Ashes series.
Dr. Simran Jeet Singh
Dr. Simran Jeet Singh has been recognized by TIME as one of the people fighting for a more equal America. In his picture book, Fauja Singh Keeps Going, Dr. Singh retells the true story of Fauja Singh, a Sikh man who broke world records to become the first one-hundred-year-old to run a marathon.
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the recipient of the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship (popularly known as the “Genius” Grant), and author of the New York Times bestselling book, How to Be an Antiracist and the 2016 National Book Award winner, Stamped from the Beginning. His latest book, How to Be a (Young) Antiracist, is a guide for teens seeking a way forward in acknowledging, identifying, and dismantling racism and injustice.
Isabel Wilkerson
Pulitzer Prize winner and National Humanities Medal recipient Isabel Wilkerson is the author of The New York Times bestsellers Caste and National Book Critics Circle Award winner The Warmth of Other Suns. Now, her critically-acclaimed Caste has been adapted for young adults who want to become more engaged with social justice, our nation’s history, and the world around them.
Junot Díaz
Junot Díaz won the MacArthur “Genius” Grant for This Is How You Lose Her and is the Pulitzer Prize winner for his startling debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. His 2018 debut picture book, Islandborn, celebrates creativity, diversity, and our imagination’s ability to connect us to our families, our past, and ourselves.
Carlotta Walls LaNier
Civil rights icon and National Women’s Hall of Fame inductee Carlotta Walls LaNier was the youngest Little Rock Nine member to integrate Central High School. She became the first Black female ever to walk across the Central High stage and receive a diploma. She tells her story in this young adult adaptation of her memior, A Mighty Long Way.
Nicola Yoon
A prominent figure in young adult fiction, Nicola Yoon is a National Book Award finalist, Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipient and a Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner. She also leads Joy Revolution, an imprint committed to publishing young adult romance novels written by and featuring people of color. In her bestselling young adult novels, Yoon brings diversity to the YA romance genre.